


Seaspray

by Reiyezerwyre



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-06
Updated: 2017-02-06
Packaged: 2018-09-22 10:47:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9604646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reiyezerwyre/pseuds/Reiyezerwyre
Summary: In late 2038, off the coast of Shandong, little more than a mile or more from Dagong Island, the Jun Tao - a fishing trawler out of Qing Dao - snared something in it's nets that stunned the world and turned the scientific community on it's head. Something that up until then no one would have believed.





	

In late 2038, off the coast of Shandong, little more than a mile or more from Dagong Island, the Jun Tao - a fishing trawler out of Qing Dao - snared something in it's nets that stunned the world and turned the scientific community on it's head. Something that up until then no one would have believed.

Among the kelp and fish, tangled in the ropes and pale as death, the crew found the body of a young man. Shocked at the lifeless limbs they saw hanging limply from their catch the crew cut the body loose, only to discover, as it spilled from the net, that the body was not that of young man as they had first thought. At their feet, sprawled across the deck was the body of some manner of creature that none of them had ever laid eyes on. A twisted mess of skin and scales, flesh and fin.

On the shore the Jun Tao's discovery caused a sensation as local media ran the story with macabre photos of the dead creature strung up by the tail. The crew posed around it with disbelieving smiles on their faces. A local Qing Dao paper dubbed the creature, 'Zi Tao', the merman of Qing Dao. Like wildfire, speculation and rumour blazed rampant around the world as social media and news corporations a like weighed in on the discovery of the so called 'merman'.

The crew of the Jun Tao for their part were heralded as heroes and accused of being deceivers all in the same breath as their discovery came under the scrutiny of reporters and scientists a like. Surely a creature such as the one that the crew claimed to have found could not actually exist.

In the weeks following the discovery of 'Zi Tao' countless researchers and experts took their pound of flesh from the body, weighing the organs, peeling back the skin and scales in an effort to find evidence of fraud. But after a month and a half their results were deemed inconclusive. So as the hype died down and the discovery was largely dismissed as a hoax, the world soon forgot about the supposed 'merman of Qing Dao'.

Eight months later, however, somewhere out on the South China Sea, the Yi Jie - a fishing trawler from Guang Zhou - discovered another creature much like that which had been found in Qing Dao. Only the thing the crew of the Yi Jie snagged in their net was not dead, but very much alive. Like an injured beast it thrashed and struggled as it was pulled in, screeching and screaming as the nylon threads of the net bit deeper into its flesh.

As it was raised from the sea, tangled in the net, the creature fixed the crew with a wild, angry glare from beneath the mess of blonde, kelp-tangled hair that fell over its face. Hissing and snarling it had bared its fangs and claws as they lowered it to the deck and the crew’s terrified green horn was coerced into to cutting the monster free.

It took four grown men to subdue the livid creature once they had pulled it free of the net and none of them walked away from the struggle unscathed. The creature, though lean limbed, was as strong as raging bull. With a kick of its graphite-silver tail it caught one crewman in the chest, throwing him back a few paces and fracturing a handful of ribs. While the claws on its scaled-webbed hands raked deep gashes down arms and across stomachs. Bleeding and bruised the crew wore the creature down and bound it tight once the fight had gone out of it. Tethering its deadly tail to the rigging before heading back to shore. A prize more valuable than the catch they had been seeking on board.

Unlike Qing Dao's 'Zi Tao', who'd been dissected and quartered, Guang Zhou's 'Yi Fan' - as the crew of the Yi Jie had christened their catch - was poked, prodded and scrutinised, like the curious specimen it was, for months on end. Vails of its blood drawn, its scales and cuts of the membrane between its fingers examined under microscopes. All the while the fire that burned in 'Yi Fan's' deep teal eyes slowly died out. Its limbs began to wither and its scales became dull and mottled overtime until it eventually died less than six months after its capture.

By then it had been declared that as far as science could determine, both 'Yi Fan' and its predecessor 'Zi Tao' were mermen.

The way the world saw the sea was never the same.

 


End file.
